e to a more tranquil time of life.
Therefore the venerable city, after having bowed down the haughty necks
of fierce nations, and given laws to the world, to be the foundations
and eternal anchors of liberty, like a thrifty parent, prudent and rich,
intrusted to the Caesars, as to its own children, the right of governing
their ancestral inheritance.

6. And although the tribes are indolent, and the countries peaceful, and
although there are no contests for votes, but the tranquillity of the
age of Numa has returned, nevertheless, in every quarter of the world
Rome is still looked up to as the mistress and the queen of the earth,
and the name of the Roman people is respected and venerated.

7. But this magnificent splendour of the assemblies and councils of the
Roman people is defaced by the inconsiderate levity of a few, who never
recollect where they have been born, but who fall away into error and
licentiousness, as if a perfect impunity were granted to vice. For as
the lyric poet Simonides teaches us, the man who would live happily in
accordance with perfect reason, ought above all things to have a
glorious country.

8. Of these men, some thinking that they can be handed down to
immortality by means of statues, are eagerly desirous of them, as if
they would obtain a higher reward from brazen figures unendowed with
sense than from a consciousness of upright and honourable actions; and
they even are anxious to have them plated over with gold, a thing which
is reported to have been first done in the instance of Acilius Glabrio,
who by his wisdom and valour had subdued King Antiochus. But how really
noble a thing it is to despise all these inconsiderable and trifling
things, and to bend one's attention to the long and toilsome steps of
true glory, as the poet of Ascrea[7] has sung, and Cato the Censor has
shown by his example. For when he was asked how it was that while many
other nobles had statues he had none, replied: "I had rather that good
men should marvel how it was that I did not earn one, than (what would
be a much heavier misfortune) inquire how it was that I had obtained
one."

9. Others place the height of glory in having a coach higher than usual,
or splendid apparel; and so toil and sweat under a vast burden of
cloaks, which are fastened to their necks by many clasps, and blow about
from the excessive fineness of the material; showing a desire, by the
continual wriggling of their bodies, and especially